speaker, the president of the united states. >> woodruff: one of the criticisms of mr. obama's leadership is that he's had so much difficulty winning support from congress. many republicans say that's because he was too beholden to his democratic base. tom davis is a former g.o.p. congressman from virginia. >> when he got elected i think he had every intention of trying to bring everybody together behind him, let's work together, but he had a democratic congress. the minute you go over and sit down with the republicans you'll have pelosi and the democrats fighting saying "we won the election." so the pressure is for him to produce a work product and the republicans weren't going to follow over and say "oh, yeah, let's work together." it's tough situation. when your party controls both houses, those interest groups control the agenda. they don't want to give it away to the other side. >> reporter: but the number two democrat, dick durbin, said the president often took on leaders of his own party. he recounted a late night white house meeting on health care reform in janu